OSLO: Hydro wants to invest NOK 4 billion in a new technology that will enable a much more eco-friendly production of aluminum. Next to the oil and gas industry, this is the largest investment in Norwegian mainland industry in a decade.
Hydro, a global supplier of aluminum, plans to build a new production facility at Karmøy, in the southwestern part of Norway, if they can secure affordable power agreements.
Besides oil and gas, the pilot project at Karmøy will be the largest investment in the mainland industry in a decade,” says Hydro CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg.
Brandtzæg hopes to secure the necessary power agreements at the start of 2016. Government enterprise Enova has promised to pay NOK 1,5 billion of the estimated total cost of NOK 3,9 billion, and the financial support has been approved by the European Free Trade Association’s surveillance authority, the ESA.
Hydro’s project is historical. This is an industry that employs many people, that is a pioneer when it comes to research and development, and that contributes to a necessary green change,” says Minister of Industry Monica Mæland (Høyre/The Conservative Party) to NTB.
Hydro estimates that the power consumption and CO2 emissions from the production in the new faciltiies will be approximately 10 percent lower than at the aluminum plants which the company operates today.
